How Do I Know If CourageLab Is Right For Me?

Hi friend! Thanks so much for joining me. This episode is all about how to know if my program Courage Lab is right for you. If you're not interested in working with me, or if you're not curious about Courage Lab, then you want to go ahead and skip this episode. It's all good. No harm, no foul. I gotcha. There's going to be more goodness coming, but if you are curious, if you have questions, I've been getting this question a lot. And so I just want to take a little time to answer who it's for, what it is, and to help you make the best decision for you. Y'all know I'm a straight shooter. I keep it real. I am not interested in taking people's money who I cannot help. I cannot tell you how uninterested I am in that. There are so many amazing coaches and consultants out there, and I do a specific thing for a specific person. So, if I ain't your vibe, it's all good. Truly, I bless and release you, my friend. It's okay. Uh, so how to know if Courage Lab is for you? Let's get into it. First off, it's a six week group coaching accelerator for folks who are looking to raise unrestricted revenue from individuals. You're ready to ask for major gifts, 10k plus gifts from individuals in six weeks. So it's quick, we move fast, it's all about taking action. I do live training. You also get my Major Gifts modules, my course, which is evergreen. And I've gotten so much amazing feedback on the live coaching calls that are in a group and the recorded modules, which you will have six months access to. Thank you. Courage Lab is for you if you know that you need to be bolder when it comes to fundraising and major gifts is an area where you are relying upon growth. If you are looking to prioritize Getting better at major gifts fundraising and you know, you need to be bolder You need to ask for bigger gifts and you're ready to do that It is a priority for you to do that in the coming weeks and months If you are an executive director if you are a development director if you are in a development role and you are going to be directly meeting with and making asks of individuals for major gifts, then this is for you. If you are, if your mission is U. S. based and you are doing work in your local community, you're a national non profit, and you have bold growth goals, if you need to raise more money, I guess I need to say this, but if you don't really need to raise more money, please don't join Courage Lab. Like, this is not for people who just want to learn and be a better student. This is for people who need to learn this stuff to raise the money. You need to raise money for your mission because you're impacting your community. And you're trying to change the world. If you're just coming to a course to learn and observe, this ain't that. This is for people who are doing awesome work, you are effective at what you do, you have results, you are changing the world. If you are a brand new startup, it's likely not for you. Unless you have, let's say you have board members and you sense that they could be giving more. They might be able to give a major gift. But you want the right tactics, you want the right approach, you know that you need to get a little courage, you need to be a bit more brave and bold to have those conversations, Courage Lab could be for you. If you have some individual donors, if you have absolutely zero individual donors, Courage Lab is not for you. Now some of you will say, well, I only, I have some individual donors but they're giving 100, or they're giving 1, 000, or 2, 000, or 5, 000. Or you might say, well, I only have two donors and they both give 10k. If you have any individual donors and you sense that they could give a major gift. Courage Lab is for you. If you have individual donors and they are giving any amount, if they're monthly donors and they are giving 50 a month, 25 a month, and you sense that there's an opportunity with your current individual giving base. Meaning, if I asked you, are your individual donors giving their best gifts? And you would say, you know what Julie, no they're not. Courage Lab could be the right fit for you. You can get the right approach, the right training, and identify opportunities that you may not even realize are there. Meaning there's money on the table with your current base and you don't realize it. Then Courage Lab is for you. If You know you're a bit too timid if you need training and you haven't gotten it and you're looking to take action. You want to move fast. You're not interested in a 12 month program. You're not interested in a six month program. It's too long. You want to take action now and it's a priority for you to raise more unrestricted revenue through major gifts. Courage Lab is for you. If you are ready, you have a big vision for impact, you have clear goals, you know what you're raising money for, you just need some practice, you need some guidance, you need some training, but you're ready to make those asks of individuals. Courage Lab is for you. I want to help you. You can go to julieordonez. com slash courage lab and read all about it. I want to tell you about Morgan. Morgan is a development director. She went through Courage Lab and she said to me, Julie, I, I really knew I needed to get major gifts training, but I was looking at your website. I was looking at all these testimonials And thinking, that's awesome, but they probably have, you know, big donor bases, they're probably much bigger than us, don't think I'm going to get the same results. She said that she was telling herself stories of like, these are all the reasons why I'm not going to be able to raise a 10k gift. But, you know, if I go to Courage Lab, seems like Julie could help me, I'll probably learn a lot and I might be ready in the future to make those major asks. So, the story she, Morgan was telling herself was, you know what, I don't really, I don't really know if I have the relationships, the strong enough relationships with donors. And people probably have donors with much higher capacity than ours. So I'm, you know, these testimonials are great, but I don't think I'm going to get those results necessarily. And she also said, you know, I'm not really like a bold person, right? Air quotes. but she said, I know that I need some of that mindset for this part of my job. She was totally right. And in the, in Courage Lab, she joined. and raised 17, 000. So Morgan joins, she raises 17, 000. This is a pledge and 15, 000 of that came from one donor and one conversation. And previously both donors had only ever been giving 250 a year. So they were 250 annual donors. One of them agreed to give 2, 000 and the other agreed to give 15, 000. And this happened in six weeks. This was Morgan, who said that she was, she's a development director. She's looking at Courage Lab testimonials and saying, Ah, these people probably have donors who could give much more than our donors. Right. So her two individual donors that she asked through courage lab both went from two 50 a year, 250 a year to 15 K a year and two 50 a year to 2000 a year in six weeks. And then she said, after going through courage lab, I'm, I'm confident that I'm going to get even more. I'm going to raise even more. I'm going to get more meetings, especially as the year end approaches. By the way, she joined the spring cohort. So Courage Lab happens in February and September. I guess February is the winter, right? I mean, yeah. So, sufficiently in the winter. Listen, I live in L. A., okay? So there ain't no winter. So, you might be thinking, oh, well, that was end of year. No, it wasn't. It wasn't the end of the year. And the upcoming cohort, if you're listening to this, is September 10th. So, Morgan went through in February. So, Put that in your pipe and smoke it. She said practicing the pitch was really helpful. That's what we do inside Courage Lab. There's frameworks. There's a pitch framework. Like what the heck do I say? What do I say? She said I used to feel hung up on how to structure an individual donor meeting. Like what do I do with that time? And now she knows exactly what to do with that time. Inside Courage Lab you get a meeting guideline on what to do with discovery meetings when you're first meeting with a donor for the first time or you're meeting with a prospect and what do you do with a meeting where you are asking for money? What do you do with that time? She said Courage Lab has really increased her confidence and you know when you're, when you're out on your own you're out here, here trying to raise money. When are you going to make the time to actually practice your pitch? Do you have a boss who you can do that with? If so, that's awesome. Do you actually do it? Do you practice with your team? And she said, you know, making yourself practice your pitch in front of other people, in front of your peers, is the best way to practice, but it's easy to avoid on your own. She's totally right. Yeah. Akili, another amazing director of development, went through Courage Lab and she said, you know, before Courage Lab, my relationship with Major Gifts was really fearful and it was ego based and I was worried about asking for too much. I was worried about damaging relationships that existed before me, that existed before I joined this organization. I was worried I didn't have enough knowledge or experience. to warrant asking for more. And then going through Courage Lab, she followed up with a donor and they committed to a 10k gift. Amazing! This is in six weeks. She said, working with Julie transformed my relationship with asking and giving. Now after Courage Lab, I'm focused on building relationships. I'm asking for more 10K gifts. 10K is now my standard major donor ask. Amazing. She said, now I've positioned myself as a leader in the lives of my donors, which I would have not had the confidence to do prior. This is Akili Phillips, Director of Development. They are in different markets, in different states. They've had different levels of experience. You can tell, new to Major Gifts, have not had training previously. This is typical, these are typical results. So, here are the criteria for folks that it's a good fit for you. If you, are considering Courage Lab, here's how to know if this sounds like you. You have some individual donors and you sense that they could be giving more. This could be as few as two donors. Could be monthly donors as well. You have a big vision for impact. You have a strategic plan of some kind. You know why you're raising more money and what you're going to do with it. What impact it's going to create. You are ready to ask for 10k gifts from individuals. It is a priority for you to raise major gifts revenue in the six weeks that we start. We start September 10th and the following cohort is in February. You're ready to ask for more. You just need training, you need guidance. That's what I'm here for. And you know, you can admit it. Look, I'm a little bit too timid when it comes to fundraising. I need to be bolder. I need to have a more courageous mindset. And you sense that you're leaving money on the table as a result of that. If you can admit that and you know, you need to get bolder and you need to, you're ready to raise 10 K gifts. In six weeks or less and take action in a supportive, accountable community of peers, of executive directors, development directors who are there for you, who are doing the work alongside you and me as your coach and mentor, then sign up for courage lab. There are a limited number of spots available. I keep the cohorts intimate so that everyone gets one to one feedback. Courage Everybody gets coaching, mindset coaching. You'll learn strategy and tactics on major gifts that will serve you for the rest of your career. What I teach is evergreen. So you can go on my website, julieordonez. com slash courage lab. You can read all about the six weeks, the topics that we cover all six weeks. You can read more testimonials. Yes, I have a ton of them because I get people results. If this sounds like you, then Courage Lab is right for you and I encourage you to sign up. You have what it takes. You can get results. You can change your relationship with fundraising and get better results faster. And I can show you how. Go to JulieOrdonez. com slash Courage Lab if that's right for you. If you're a bit more advanced and you already raised 10, 20, 50k, 100k gifts, And you, your priority is six and seven figure gifts in the next six months. Then do not sign up for courage lab. If you're more advanced, DM me on LinkedIn and let's talk. I can have a, I might be able to help you with my more advanced program. but if not, that's okay. Courage lab might be the right fit for you. Sign up today. take the time to check it out. And if this resonates with you, if you think that I'm the coach who can help you, sign up. I would love to have you. Courage Lab is one of my favorite things that I do. It's such an honor to see people have these aha moments where the lightbulb goes off, they see what it actually takes to raise major gifts, and they know how to do it. over and over again and they just build this confidence, uh, by getting results. It's not fake. It's not inauthentic confidence. It comes from seeing what you're really made of. If that sounds like it's the right thing for you, sign up. Let's get after it. Let's get this money. Thanks so much.